I have to say that the Salt Lake superheroes have some the coolest names and costumes I’ve seen so far:
Mike Gailey, a burly former bouncer at a strip club whose crime-fighting persona is called Asylum, said that for him, joining the Black Monday Society was partly about making amends for things in his past, like the time he spent collecting debts for drug dealers.
“I was a thug,” said Mr. Gailey, 31. “There are a lot of guys like me that have pasts they’re trying to make up for.”
Another Black Monday patroller described himself as a former gang member. The group’s co-founder, Dave Montgomery, a tattoo artist known in the street as the black-leather-clad Nihilist, said he was a former alcoholic who put on the mask when he stopped drinking. […]
Mr. Montgomery, or Nihilist, said masks were everywhere once you started to look. What is hidden and what is revealed by disguise, he said, is the basic psychology of a superhero’s life.
“It’s almost Freudian,” he said. “When you wear a mask, you’re actually able to become who you really are. It becomes kind of like a drug.”
New York Times: Crusaders Take Page, and Outfits, From Comics
I’ve mentioned before that I have some reservations about the movement and about vigilantism in general, some are doing good work doing things like helping keep the homeless from being robbed.
We’ve had our eye on the real-life superhero movement here at Technoccult since 2001.
December 27, 2011 at 10:41 am
My dad pointed out that with the increase of Muslims in the USA and the media popularity of Guy Fawkes masks associated with Anonymous and Occupy Wall Street, masks in general are going to be more common in the near future. Perhaps the US will also follow the lead of some nations with air pollution problems and more people will wear air filters, as well.
December 30, 2011 at 4:28 pm
Back in January, HalfPastHumans noted an increase in the prominence of a mask-related web discussion entity occurring in the second half of this year…